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Unravelling the Role of KCTD Protein Family in the Clinical Management of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemias

Recruiting
Conditions
Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Interventions
Other: observational study
Registration Number
NCT05729178
Lead Sponsor
IRCCS SYNLAB SDN
Brief Summary

A transcriptomic analysis of bone marrow from B-ALL patients was performed by our research group for identifying novel protein/factor with a putative role of disease biomarker. Along with some already known B-ALL biomarkers, our analysis highlighted deregulation of some members of an emerging protein class denoted as KCTD (Potassium ChannelTetramerization Domain-containing proteins). Starting from our preliminary observations, and considering that KCTDs havenever been studied in ALL, we decided to study these proteins in B- and T-ALL affected pediatric patients, enrolled by our research group in collaboration with AORN Santobono-Pausilipon pediatric oncological hospital.Indeed, the present research program aims at opening a new scenario for the study of KCTD proteins in childhood leukemias. The final goal of the project will be to evaluate the translational relevance of selected deregulated KCTDs as novel biomarkers useful for B-ALL and T-ALL diagnostics, and patient management.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
80
Inclusion Criteria
  • Patients aged 1-18 years of both sexes diagnosed with B- ALL and T-ALL;
  • Patients who will have signed the informed consent
Exclusion Criteria
  • Patients who refuse to participate in the study;
  • Patients who do not fall within the age range mentioned above

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patientsobservational studypediatric patients of 1-16 years old affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia
healthy subjectsobservational studycord blood from healthy donors that cannot be used for clinical purposes
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
RT-PCR validation of deregulated KCTDs and identification of possible KCTDs interactors in leukemia by functional proteomic approach13-24 months

After the interpretation of transcriptome data we will perform specific validation experiments by reat-time pcr, westernblotting, flow cytometry and microscopy. Briefly,total RNA will be purified from about 5e6 total MNC and used for RT-PCR experiments; BM smear will be collected for immunofluorescence analysis of deregulated KCTDs; protein total extract will be obtained from at least 1 e 6 total MNC and stored at -80°C until Western Blotting; finally, live mononuclear cells will be treted for permeabilization and cytoplasmic immunostaining of the KCTDs of interest. All experiments will be settled-up on B- and T-ALL in vitro human model systems and then performed on patients and controls cells. Moreover, in order to identify possible interactors of KCTDs proteins we will use B-ALL and T-ALL cell lines for functional proteomics analysis.

Correlation of B-ALL patients clinical data with KCTDs expression level25-36 months

Firstly, we will evaluated the usefulness of the deregulated KCTD proteins as novel markers of leukemia to be tested by multiparametric clinical flowcytometry. A specific protocol has been already setted-up by our research team, and it is able to stain cytoplasmicantigens (such as KCTD proteins) with surface antigens commonly used for to study hematoogical compartments by flowcytometry. This approach will be useful especially in monitoring patient response to treatment as well as detection of minimal residual disease. Moreover, being able to detect cytoplasmic KCTDs in combination with surface antigens, we planned to describe the KCTDs expression levels in multiple cellular population residing in marrow and peripheral blood.Secondly, the overall data obtained in this study will be also interpreted looking at the patient clinics with particular reference to the response to therapy, the risk of relapse and, when possible, resistance to therapy.

KCTD expression levels, by RNAseq approach, in a cohort of B and T cell ALL affected patients compared to unaffected controls1-12 months

We enroll during this project about 15-20 B-ALL, and 3-6 T-ALL patients.RNAseq experiments for transcriptome analysis will be performed on a study cohort of at least 8 B-ALL patients, 3-4 T-ALL patients, and naive B or T cells purified from cord blood as control for B- and T-ALL correspondingly. Raw counts will be used and an empirical Bayes approach applied (DESeq2, R package). The results will include, for each gene, log-fold change (log2), base mean, p-value and adjusted p-values (Benjamimi-Hochberg). DEgenes output will be exported into format suitable for IPA Ingenuity pathway AnalysisSoftware (Qiagen), for gene annotations, functional analysis and biomarker prediction. The KCTD proteins that will be dereguleted in B-ALL and T-ALL will be studied in detail.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

IRCCS Synlab SDN

🇮🇹

Naples, Italy

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